Former Premier League official gives honest verdict on Daniel Farke’s refereeing complaints

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has claimed poor refereeing played a role in Leeds United’s failure to get promoted last season. His comments come on the back of Whites boss Daniel Farke, who revealed in April that he had received numerous letters of apology from the PGMOL refereeing body over errors made by officials.

United finished the regular league season in third position, missing out on automatic promotion by six points. Farke again questioned the standard of refereeing after the first leg of their play-off semi-final with Norwich City after Junior Firpo saw an effort flagged for marginally offside. He went on to say that United would have secured automatic promotion if VAR had worked in the Championship.

“You could argue that the six letters probably cost Leeds a lot of points which could have seen them get automatic promotion,” Halsey told The Real EFL. “Bring a fight. Do we want VAR in the EFL? I’d say no, not under the current implementation in the Premier League because it’s so inconsistent.

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“Howard Webb is a good friend of mine but as head of PGMOL I would be very unhappy to have received six complaints from Leeds United about my referees. If Howard sends those six letters of apology for bad decisions, then there’s a massive problem with the standard of officiating at that level, isn’t there?

“We have a problem. I saw some good referees in the championship. There are good referees, good referees developing all over the place. But it is the training, the education, the leadership and the direction to bring these referees up to speed. I think he needs to look at his back team.

“When a new manager comes into a football club, He changes the whole back room. He brings his own people; Howard hasn’t done that yet. I think this has to happen. I think the people under him, working, are not good enough to bring in the referees like we were a few years ago.”